RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Evidence is so strong that Republicans carved North Carolinaโ€™s congressional districts for a specific — and illegal — partisan advantage that those lines must be barred now from use, a lawyer representing voters told judges on Thursday.

    A panel of three Superior Court judges listened but didnโ€™t immediately rule on the request by the Democratic and unaffiliated voters to prevent the 2020 elections from being administered under the map approved by GOP state legislators in 2016. The voters who sued to challenge the law say the General Assembly should get the opportunity to draw a replacement map thatโ€™s finalized by mid-December for use in the March 3 primary.

    Republicans hold 10 of the stateโ€™s 13 congressional seats thanks to a deliberate effort to shift lines so that Democrats were largely packed into three districts and spread out elsewhere, the lawsuit alleges.

    โ€œNorth Carolina voters deserve better than these gerrymandered maps,โ€ said Stanton Jones, a lawyer representing the voters. โ€œThey deserve better than being treated like pawns in some cynical partisan chess match.โ€

    The votersโ€™ requested injunction, if granted, would come before any trial or resolution of the partisan gerrymandering lawsuit filed Sept. 27. But the suitโ€™s legal arguments largely mirror another legal case that led these same state judges last month to strike down dozens of state legislative districts as violating the state constitution.

    Attorneys representing the Republican legislative leaders who were sued and three GOP members of Congress told the judges itโ€™s too late to make congressional map changes. Candidate filing begins Dec. 2 and campaigning has already started in some districts. By contrast, it took nearly a year for the legislative district litigation case to result in a ruling, said Katherine McKnight, a lawyer for the GOP state legislators.

    โ€œAs we sit here today we are five weeks away from the beginning of candidate qualifying,โ€ McKnight said. โ€œThe court is in no position today to grant them the relief they seek.โ€

    But facts about the 2016 congressional map already have been gathered in separate litigation challenging the congressional lines in federal court, plaintiffsโ€™ attorney Elisabeth Theodore told the judges. That case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided 5-4 in June that federal courts would not get involved in partisan redistricting claims. The justices left the door open for state courts to intervene.

    During the 2016 remap, Republicans put in writing that partisan data and election results could be used in fashioning the districts, with a goal of retaining 10 of the seats in the stateโ€™s congressional delegation. The GOPโ€™s hired mapmaker, Thomas Hofeller, โ€œadmitted in sworn testimony that he carried out this goal,โ€ Theodore said. Hofeller, who has since died, featured prominently in the legislative redistricting case, too.

    โ€œEveryone ... knows that North Carolinaโ€™s congressional plan is an extreme partisan gerrymander that predetermines the elections and guarantees 10 seats for the Republicans and three seats for the Democrats,โ€ Theodore said. โ€œThis is so plain that the legislative defendants do not even bother to dispute it in their opposition briefs.โ€

    McKnight countered that there are no undisputed facts in the current lawsuit because evidence hasnโ€™t yet been collected for it.

    The State Board of Elections says it needs a replacement map in its hands by Dec. 15 to keep the current election schedule on time. The judges otherwise could delay the primary, potentially pushing it back to the runoff date in the spring.

    Paul Cox, a state Department of Justice lawyer representing the board on Thursday, told the judges that an injunction would be appropriate. Cox said the September ruling striking down legislative districts is so similar to details of the current case that administering congressional elections under the current map โ€œmight violate the constitutional rights of North Carolina voters.โ€

    The judges on Thursday allowed the three Republican members of Congress — Reps. Virginia Foxx, Richard Hudson and Ted Budd — to join the lawsuit as defendants. The House members oppose the proposed injunction.


    News Hounds

    Pinned Items
    Recent Activities
    • AshleyE unlocked the badge News Hound
      News Hound
      Community News Contributor To unlock the Newshound badge simply register as a member of the community and participate and engage with our community.
      0
      0
      0
      0
      0
      0
      Comments (0)
      Post is under moderation
      Stream item published successfully. Item will now be visible on your stream.
    There are no activities here yet